Slow Activity
WalnutCreek Zone 7b/8a
9 years ago
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9 years agoarkansas girl
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Microbial Activity in Clay Soil
Comments (23)I don't know if I can help or not. I would have reworded kimmsr's advice slightly. What he is telling you is you need both microbes (from the compost tea) and organic matter (food from organic fertilizer). I believe he nuances that because he lives in a special world where he does not have to fertilize to have a great lawn. In my world I found that I need a lot of fertilizer to achieve the density needed to deter weeds. One or the other may be a waste of money if you don't have the other one. You may already have organic food in the soil naturally. I believe that is rare, but kimmsr might disagree. But if you add rabbit food at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet, then you can be certain there is plenty of food for the microbes in the tea. Lowenfells, by the way, is a master at compost tea. I used to participate on a forum with him, and he really knows his stuff. As far as I know he has written the first book to take into consideration the recent (1990s) findings that there are tens of thousands of species of microbes in the soil. Prior to that all the books by the experts assumed no microbes and that compost was the only "fertilizer" you needed. I call them "Rodalians" after J.I. Rodale, the previous guru on organic gardening. Rodale was working without the knowledge of the microbial population. Now we know that compost is not a fertilizer but a source of microbes. And we know that animal feed is a fertilizer and source of enzymes, vitamins, and minerals for the soil microbes. One important thing about compost tea: In most of the country you cannot make it right during the heat of summer. If you are making it in an air conditioned space, then fine. If you are making it outdoors, it is too warm to support the multiplication of microbes that you can get with cooler water. The water temp must be between 50 and 70 degrees F to get the best results. Colder than that and the microbes go dormant. Up around 80 degrees F the microbes cannot get enough oxygen to survive. 70 degrees would be a great temp....See Moreadvice needed: hoping to get more activity in 2014
Comments (31)Sine posting this, I've actually had some interest! No offers yet but at least I'm getting showings (it makes me feel a ton better that at least things are happening).....I think you're right about the fall/winter being slow times...unfortunately, patience is something I lack so this is extremely stressful for me....my agent says to stay with the current price...average days on the market for my area is around 160 days so I guess my listing isn't too old...my plan is to try to wait until March before I have a small price reduction...thank you MrsHanson for the encouraging words...I really hope you're right and the spring brings in the right buyer for my house...See MoreAnyone have any gardening activities going on now?
Comments (18)I drizzle out cleaning over winter. Last weekend I raked and trimmed some plants back, sort of a rough stage one cleaning, the biggest one will be in late January or mid February when I cut back the grasses. Henbit is coming up in earnest along with the invasive Privet seedlings and a few dandelions & fescue from the property next door so thats been being weeded out with gusto. I've been direct sowing seeds in dribs and drabs insuring all kinds of surprises coming up in the mini prairie. I've added Astralagus, Prairie Larkspur, more Moss Verbena, Three Leaf Sumac, Spectacle Pod, SW & Texas Native varieties of Penstemon and quite a few others I would have to rack my brain or go through my box of home made seed packets to remember. Upstairs in a sunny window I'm growing various varieties of grass plugs which need warm temps in 4" pots (S. 'Prairie Blues', S. nutans 'Indian Steel', Weeping Muhly Gulf Muhly & Sacaton Alkali). I also have some Sand Penstemon up to get a head start on plants for spring. I plan to order some Muhlenbergia porteri (Bush Muhly Grass) seeds this week and sow those coming up indoors. To add more silver/blue I'm starting more Fringed Sage from rooted sections I took from the established plants. The over all plan is to tone down the bloomers in favor of texture since I want the blooms to just be accents of color among the grasses which will dominate in drifts. I took 3 large cuttings from a blue O. macrocentra cactus that I'm rooting indoors to add some more blue/purple sculptural interest in chosen spots which I will set out in March. I also have a nice blue shindagger agave I got in a trade this fall to set out that came from New Mexico, its under the carport wintering over dry along with another cactus that will form a patch of fuzzy 'dinner rolls' eventually. No journals or drawn out plans happen around here. No plant tags are saved or organized since most plants are from collected seed rather than a nursery but if its growing out there, I always recognize it and know where it came from even if I don't know the name of it yet which happens a lot. I like to spend time online trying to ID some of these wild things. Luckily I have big windows upstairs and I can look down and right away see the layout and spacing and plan changes visually. Thats about as close to a plan as I have, the rest is done in my head where I pretty much have it memorized anyway and nature makes many decisions here which are better than the ones I had. The sowing I do in winter makes the next year an adventure of sorts as I discover things coming up. This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Mon, Dec 15, 14 at 14:10...See MoreCat much less active than a few months ago
Comments (8)Thanks Emily. Litterbox seems fine, though he shares with two other cats so it's hard to see what he's producing all the time. But his urinalysis came back normal. He does seem to be drinking a lot but his kidneys came back normal too. The vet specifically did some extra tests to make sure the kidneys were fine. Appetite is fine, he's sleeping a lot too but I think that's correlated with moving less. He doesn't hesitate to jump up and down on things. We had an incident over Christmas break where another cat of mine got loose (he's separated and has his own room because he attacks my other cats) and got into a huge fight with this cat. The mean cat was chasing this cat all over the house, attacking, and i'm sure they both flew down the stairs. We were able to get them separated after a few minutes, and this cat seemed fine but I'm wondering if he was injured during that attack. This seems to be about the time when things started changing. But 2 months seems like a long time to have an injury that doesn't show up on xrays. The vet said xrays aren't really helpful in showing soft tissue problems. I'm just frustrated because he seems to be in pain but I don't know what to do for him other than continue the supplements. He doesn't need to use the stairs but unless I lock him in a room, he's going to keep using them. All his stuff is upstairs but of course he wants to be downstairs with the family so he ends up going up and down the stairs at least 10 times a day....See Morekatlan
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